“Baking and love go hand in hand, for as one bakes a tasty treat and fills the room with its sweet aroma, the true joy is to take what has been made and share it with another.” - Heather Wolf, Kipnuk has a Birthday

It's true, baking is no fun if the final result isn't going to be shared with anyone. Over the weekend we took a long road trip from our home in Colorado to visit our son who is at the University of Nebraska. He is playing club rugby for UNL and we hadn't had a chance to see him play yet. This past weekend was our opportunity, and we'd been looking forward to it for weeks. I'm firmly in the "food is love" camp, and so I wanted to bring him a treat that would survive the car ride, have a good shelf life and be conducive to sharing. Gooey Peanut Butter M&M Oat Bars fit the bill perfectly. This recipe is an adaptation of one I have been making for a long time. It originally appeared in a little cookbook I bought at a Southern Living at Home party years ago but called for regular Milk Chocolate M&M's. So feel free to make that substitution if you prefer. Each variation is pretty outrageously good!

3. On low speed stir in butter until mixture is crumbly. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of crumbs. Press the remainder evenly into the prepared 9x13 pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

4. Meanwhile, place 8 ounces (approx 1 full cup) of Peanut Butter M&M's in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on 50% power for 30 second intervals, pressing on candies with back of wooden spoon to mash between intervals, until candies are pretty much all melted with pieces of the candy shell speckling the mix). Stir in sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and peanut butter. Stir until well combined. Pour mixture over cooled base, leaving a small border around all sides.

"It's like peanut butter and chocolate. Each is great, but they're better together." -Richard Whitehead

I'm dating myself, but anyone else remember the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial that had that line in it? In the end it was a good thing though! Chocolate and peanut butter together is a match made in heaven.

A while back there was a really nice magazine published (or at least I thought so) called Chocolatier. Are you familiar with it? Sadly it is no longer. As a pastry fan and pastry professional hopeful and then a working pastry professional, it was a magic door into pastry worlds I only dreamed of. I remember one recipe for a cookie I think was called Tiger Striped Cookies. It was a drop peanut butter cookie with chocolate streaks through it. Once it was baked it had a pretty striking appearance and a great flavor. I had the recipe for a long time and then through subsequent moves and whittling down my recipe collection it somehow disappeared. I was thinking about that recipe the other day and thought I'd just try to recreate it to the best of my memory. Here is the result for that cookie- super easy, super tasty. If you are in the chocolate-peanut butter lover's camp I bet you will love it. Let me know, won't you?

I used Einkorn flour for my gluten sensitive daughter but the recipe shows the ingredients for both all-purpose or Einkorn flour. For that matter you can also use a 1:1 ratio gluten free baking flour just as easily.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.* I am 5,o00 ft above sea level. I reduce baking soda to 1 1/8 teaspoon and baking powder to 3/4 teaspoon, in case you are baking at high altitude, too.3. Cream together sugar, peanut butter, and butter on low speed of stand mixer until well -combined.

4. Add in eggs and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until well incorporated.

6. Reduce mixer to low speed and stir in flour mixture just until combined. Remove bowl from mixer.

7. Drizzle melted chocolate on top of dough in a random fashion

8. By hand, using a rubber spatula, carefully fold the melted chocolate into the dough, leaving distinct areas of peanut butter and chocolate dough. The idea isn't to make this a chocolate dough. It should look marbled, more or less like this:

﻿Lynda﻿

Welcome to my blog! I am a wife, mother ,former pastry chef, pet mom and creative who is exploring art, trying to practice gratitude as a way of life and attempting to hold on to a sense of awe and wonder about everything in my world. I live in Northern Colorado where I love to cook, play with art supplies, hike and ride my bike. Thank you for visiting!​